Nightmare
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: It was supposed to be a normal day, instead it turned out to be anything but.
1. Chapter 1

Nightmare

A/N: This story doesn't strictly follow the timeline of the show. Stella Kidd is not present, Casey is living with Kelly after his apartment was set on fire, and Benny Severide is still alive. Hope you all enjoy, please read and review!

Kelly Severide was curled up in his bed snug and warm under the covers, for the most part. Outside he could hear the wind howling in the late October morning and somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind he knew it was morning and must be time to get up. Without opening his eyes he pulled the covers up around him even tighter, he didn't want to get out of bed. He was warm and comfortable and wanted to stay there. But the fact that he could actually think about all this told him he was more awake than he wanted to be and it _must_ be time to get up and around and face the day.

Reluctantly, Kelly tossed back the covers, and then immediately pulled them back on him. It was cold in the bedroom. He listened to the screeching winds outside and thought to himself, no wonder. The wind chill alone must be about 30 degrees, and even his apartment wasn't exempt from small cracks the chilling breeze could slip in through. He was going to have to check out the thermostat and see if it was even working.

Even more reluctantly, Kelly threw back the covers again and got up. The room was dark but through the window he could see the sky was getting light, though he didn't see the sun yet. So he was up a little earlier than usual, still, he had a full day ahead of him and might as well get started. Without bothering to turn on the light, Kelly got dressed and then left the bedroom.

The whole apartment was dark. No wonder it was so cold, the power must be out. Several scenarios went through his mind, the winds blowing the power lines down, a transformer exploding, the whole grid being down.

"Casey?" Kelly called out, "you up yet?"

If he wasn't, he was going to be in for one hell of a surprise when he did. But he must still be in bed because otherwise Kelly would've heard him complaining about how cold it was.

"Casey," Kelly went over to the guest room and knocked on the door. No answer. Casey wasn't that heavy a sleeper, not usually anyway.

Kelly turned the knob and called out, "Casey? I'm coming in, you decent?"

The door creaked in protest as he pushed it open. He stepped into the dark bedroom and looked around. He had to go over to the bed to make sure what he was seeing. Casey wasn't there, and the bed hadn't even been slept in. In fact, Kelly whirled around and took in the appearance of the whole room. All of Casey's things were gone. There wasn't any trace of the blonde man having lived there.

Kelly was left scratching his head. What happened? Had Casey moved out in the middle of the night? And why would he do that? Kelly tried to remember the events of last night. Had they gotten into a fight about something? He didn't think so, but he honestly couldn't remember anything. He didn't feel hung over, or even buzzed, but if he'd been drinking last night, it might explain why he couldn't recall anything, and it _might_ also explain why Casey had packed up and left. He _had_ been on Kelly's case for the past few weeks about drinking too much, not judgmental, they'd all done it from time to time seeing what they did on the job. No, not judgment, more out of concern, a concern that Kelly appreciated but could do without.

So maybe that was it, Casey was pissed off at him for something that happened when he'd been drinking, and he'd gone back home.

Except, Kelly remembered, Casey didn't _have_ a home anymore, hence _why_ he was staying with Kelly in the first place. Casey's home had been torched months ago by a gang of career criminals. So where would he have gone and taken all his stuff in the middle of the night?

Kelly shook his head. No matter how desperate Casey might get, he could _not_ see Matt going to stay with Otis and Cruz. Or anybody else from 51 for that matter. And he didn't have any friends off the job, and his family left much to be desired. So, where would he go?

Severide went to get his phone and see if there was a message on it, either from Casey, explaining what happened, or from anybody else to report that the Truck captain had shown up on their doorstep mysteriously in the middle of the night.

Kelly got his phone off the nightstand. Dead. But it couldn't be dead, he'd just charged it two days ago and he'd still been on three bars when he went to bed last night. He felt for the charger cord but he couldn't find it. Quickly becoming frustrated with the whole thing he dropped his phone on the night stand and left the bedroom.

His first instinct was to go to the door, but for some reason instead he went over to the windows that overlooked the yard below.

"What the hell?" he asked himself in disbelief.

The trees on the block, in typical October fashion, had recently finished shedding their leaves for the season and stood tall and completely bald, their long bare appendages waving and shaking in the wind. The sky was gray and gloomy, full of clouds that didn't look like rain, but promised the sun would not shine through. And down below the grass, still alive although the trees were not, stood at least two feet tall and peppered with brown fallen leaves. Sticking out of one massive clump was a realty sign that was half faded but advertised the building as being for sale. The cracks of the sidewalk were filled with thick green weeds that had long ago overrun the cement pavement. Straight down could be seen some loose shingles that had blown off the roof. There were no cars at the curb, nor were there any across the street either, and no lights on in any of the houses on the block.

"What the hell?" Kelly repeated, aware that his voice was actually starting to shake.

He ran for the door and unlocked it, but he couldn't get it open. He used all his strength but for some reason the knob wouldn't turn. A prickling sensation of pins and needles slowly started to climb up his spine as Kelly tried to stay calm and think. He went to the kitchen to get his tool box. He'd either take the bolt out or take the whole door off its hinges, but either way he was going to get that door open.

Kelly stepped into the kitchen, and froze. His eyes bulged as he looked around at the cobweb covered furniture and dishes, the cracks in the walls so big that huge chunks of plaster had fallen out and piled on the floor. The room looked as if nobody had been there for years.

"But...that's impossible!" Kelly told himself.

He made his way over to the cupboards and felt around for the box of matches he kept over the sink. He found them, but he struck them one by one against the side of the box and none would light. He was trapped in the dark, but it was still light enough he could _just_ barely make things out. He flung open the cupboard doors and saw the dishes were all coated in dust and spider webs. Moving across the room to the refrigerator, he pulled open the door, it too was dark, but even without a working light bulb he could see that the fridge was entirely empty, and likewise it looked like nothing had occupied those shelves for years.

_Years._

"It can't be true!" Kelly said as he left the kitchen.

He came to a sudden stop as he reentered the living room. A few minutes ago, everything had been normal, now, the furniture was worn out, the wood warped and rotten, there was filth all over the floor, broken shards of glass from a window pane that had busted out some time ago, letting the Arctic chill into the apartment and revealing the outside of the window had been half boarded up like when a house was condemned. Everything, _everything_ was coated in dust and cobwebs, years without use, without anybody living there.

"But that can't be right!" Kelly told himself, trying to make some sense of what was going on, and knowing he couldn't.

He heard a sound, heard the doorknob turning, somebody was on the other side! Who? Why?

"Hey!"

"There he is!"

Kelly felt his jaw drop and his eyes widen as Casey, Shay and Andy all stepped into the apartment, and all of them carrying something. Casey had two six-packs of beer and Shay and Andy had three bags of groceries between them. And with their presence came a light that filled the apartment and everything looked normal again.

"Don't stand there gawking," Leslie told him, "make yourself useful and take these bags already so we can start cooking dinner."

Kelly couldn't believe his eyes. "You...you're really here?"

"We hadn't seen you around for a while so we decided to bust in and make ourselves at home," Shay said.

"You've been keeping to yourself a lot lately," Casey added, "and I don't care if it _is_ you, it's not normal."

Kelly felt his legs shaking and his knees weakening at the sight of his friends. He ran towards them and went to put his arms around Shay and hug her.

They were gone and the apartment was empty and dark again. Kelly skidded to a stop just short of running into the wall. He looked around frantically. Nobody was there. What was going on?

"Casey?" he looked around the room, this couldn't be happening. "Leslie?" His voice was shaking, "Andy?"

Nothing.

Kelly ran back to the bedroom and reached for his phone where he'd left it on the nightstand, hoping it would actually work this time and he could call somebody.

The phone was gone. Slowly it dawned on Kelly to look around the room. _Everything_ of his was gone. His clothes were gone from the closet, his comb and deodorant and cologne were gone from the dresser, he threw open the drawers, they were empty, as if he had _never_ lived there. Everything that proved any sign of anybody's existence in the apartment was disappearing, and a panicked feeling in Kelly's gut told him he was next.

Kelly ran out of the bedroom and back to the front door, it was shut again, and he tried with all of his might to get it open but it wouldn't budge. He went back to the broken window, the glass was still on the floor, the autumn breeze was blowing in the broken pane at full force around the boards. Kelly tried to force the boards out of the window to jump, but they also wouldn't move. The air got colder and the winds were howling louder, and louder, and finally Kelly realized that he was screaming at the top of his lungs, and still almost completely drowned out by the wailing winds.

"Let me out of here!" he didn't even know who he was screaming to, but he fought desperately to work the wood loose from the window as he continued, "Let me out! I don't _want_ to be alone!"

* * *

Casey opened his bedroom door and ran out into the hall and over to Kelly's bedroom where the screams were coming from. It was so dark that Matt ran right into the door, only taking a couple seconds to recover as he found the knob and turned it.

"Kelly?"

He pushed the door open and was immediately hit with a freezing cold breeze. He blindly felt along the wall for the light switch but couldn't find it. The wind outside was howling so loud it sounded alive, and furious. Casey blindly fumbled through the room over to the bed and knocked his shin against the bedstead and recoiled in pain, then as Kelly continued screaming at the top of his lungs, Casey felt along the nightstand and found the lamp and twisted the knob to turn it on. He blinked several times as his eyes adjusted to the sudden light, not as bright as the overhead bulbs in the ceiling fan, but it lit up the room enough he could see where everything was...and saw the reason the wind was screaming so loud was because part of the window had broken and that's why the icy air was gushing into the room.

That quickly took the back burner however as he saw Kelly writing around on the bed screaming, first incoherently, then words, "Let me out of here! Let me out! I don't want to be alone!"

Casey jumped on the bed and straddled Kelly's torso with his knees as he grabbed the Squad lieutenant and shook him violently trying to wake him up, "Kelly! _Kelly!_"

Severide kept screaming and seemed oblivious to the man trying to jerk him awake. They were both screaming at the top of their lungs before something finally clicked for Kelly and he opened his eyes, and saw Casey hovering over him. Kelly shot up in bed screaming, the sudden momentum threw Casey off balance and both of them fell out of bed and hit the floor hard, it was a couple minutes before Kelly finally stopped screaming and Casey was able to get him to calm down. Gradually the fight went out of Severide and his body merged with the floor as he curled on his side into a ball and kept repeating, his voice breaking with horror and tears, "I don't want to be alone...I don't want to be alone..."


	2. Chapter 2

Casey squeezed his eyes shut and yawned as he poured the boiling water from the teakettle into the two mugs on the table, then stirred the contents. He looked at the digital clock on the microwave, 3:30 A.M. All he wanted to do was go back to bed but he knew that wasn't an option. He picked up the mugs and carried them into the living room where he'd left Kelly sitting on the couch wrapped up in a heavy blanket, watching the brightly lit screen of the TV.

"I couldn't find the coffee," Casey blamed it on not being fully awake. Since the commotion had died down his adrenaline had plummeted down from zenith and he was starting to get tired again. "I found some hot cocoa leftover from last winter, here."

He held it out but Kelly didn't take the mug right away so Matt just set it down on the coffee table in front of Kelly, and sat down beside him with his own mug in hand, cupping the ceramic in his hands to warm them up.

"Are you alright now?" Casey asked.

Kelly hadn't said anything since he'd finally calmed down about half an hour ago, and getting him to that point hadn't been easy. Getting him to coherently explain what had gotten him so upset had been a task in itself, in between the high pitched gasps for air and the dry sobs that made him shake as he spoke, Casey couldn't recall ever seeing Kelly that frightened before. After Severide had finally confessed about his nightmare, he fell against Casey and dropped his head on Matt's shoulder as he shook and trembled against him. Casey quickly recovered from his mild shock and put his arms around Kelly and hugged his best friend tight against him, trying to get him to calm down and trying to get him to realize that the nightmare was over and he was alright.

Kelly slowly blinked. "God, Casey, it just felt _so_ real..."

"I'm sure having your window break and nearly freezing to death didn't help matters any," Casey said. "I'll get the window replaced first thing tomorrow." For the time being he'd taped a large piece of cardboard over the broken part of the window to keep the worst of the freezing wind out. It was his estimate that the temperature in Severide's room had already dropped down to 60, even _with_ the heat on.

Kelly closed his eyes and pressed his hand against the side of his face. "I don't want to be alone," he said in a small voice.

"You're not going to start that again, are you?" Casey asked.

"That's not what I mean," Kelly said as he opened his eyes. "I'm _alone_, Casey."

"What're you talking about? You've got your mom, Benny, Katie, everybody at 51..."

"My mom doesn't come to town much, I haven't seen Katie in years, Benny's off doing...who knows what...Andy's dead, Shay's dead...I haven't had a meaningful relationship with a woman in years, I haven't been with _any_ woman for months...I don't have any friends outside of 51 and truth be told I'm not that close to the ones I _have_ at 51."

Casey looked at him as he talked, and waited until after Kelly was finished, and responded, "You still got me, Kelly."

Severide turned his head slowly and looked at him and winced, "I know, I didn't mean it like that...it's just...I feel so alone, Casey, it's like...my life doesn't have any meaning anymore."

"That's not true and you know it," Casey replied. "Think of all the people you save on the job."

"That's not what I meant either," Kelly told him. "I mean off-shift, what do I have going for me? I've got nothing...it almost _wouldn't_ make any difference if I just disappeared."

"That's not true either and you know it," Casey said.

"Well that's what it feels like," Kelly remarked. "Herrmann, Mouch and Boden are married, Herrmann and Boden have kids, Herrmann and Otis have Molly's to run-"

"Speaking of," Casey interrupted, "Herrmann asked if we could come in tomorrow and help them..." at Kelly's inquisitive glance, Casey shrugged, "They're getting ready for Halloween and need help decorating or something, I guess..."

"Anyway," Kelly absently scratched the side of his face, "Cruz has Chloe, I've got _nothing_ meaningful going on in my life."

"You want to make it a contest?" Casey asked. "Hell, if anybody should be thinking this it should be me. My dad was murdered by my mom, my mom is I don't know where, I haven't talked to my sister in years, my fiancee was murdered, I'm divorced, my ex-wife is..." Casey waved his arm out to the side, "2,000 miles away in Puerto Rico, you want to talk about a bad sign? We lost a child, we lost _two_ kids, the whole alderman nightmare, hell, the whole thing was a _bad_ marriage." Casey shook his head. "The _only_ woman who ever actually loved me, is in the cemetery."

"At least Hallie never cheated on you," Kelly said suddenly, surprising the Truck captain. Matt looked at Kelly, who just stared at him with half open but determined eyes, and added, "At least you never had to wonder...if Renee hadn't cheated on me, we would've been married for..." he shook his head as he contemplated all the missed years they could've had together, the kids they would've had by now, how vastly different his whole life would be.

"Sorry," Casey said. "But I still stand by my opinion, if anybody's got room to talk about being alone, it's me. Hell, I should've been having this nightmare." After a minute in silent thought, Casey made a small sound, part of a laugh, and he turned to Kelly and asked him, "We're an odd pair, aren't we?"

In the light from the TV, Kelly looked like he was about to burst into tears, despite this the corners of his mouth turned upward as he doubled over with a series of small laughs.

Casey reached over and clapped a hand on Kelly's shoulder. "You're okay...you feeling better now?"

Kelly composed himself and answered, "A little."

"You want to go back to bed?"

Kelly looked down and shook his head.

Casey grabbed the remote, "Let's see what's on then."

* * *

Kelly finally fell asleep around 5 o' clock in the morning, Casey was scrolling through the channels and about to fall asleep himself when Kelly's whole upper body fell against Casey and he realized Severide was out cold. He pushed Kelly back and off of him so he could get up, and decided it'd be better to leave Kelly where he was on the couch instead of waking him up to get him back to the bedroom. Severide fell against the cushions like a ton of bricks, there was _no_ waking him up anytime soon. Casey grabbed the quilt off the back of the couch and draped it over Kelly, who didn't move or respond whatsoever.

Casey watched him sleeping, and decided it was safe to head back to his own room and get a couple more hours' sleep before morning.

That idea quickly got shot to hell as he heard a sudden gasp behind him and heard Kelly cry out, "Casey!"

He spun on his heels and saw Kelly shot up on the couch, wide eyed and disoriented.

"It's alright, Kelly, I'm right here," Casey moved back towards the couch so he was directly in Severide's line of vision.

Kelly breathed heavily a few times before he calmed down and he said to Casey, "Stay...please, stay..."

Casey nodded, "Okay, sure...I will..."

Matt got a spare blanket and made himself comfortable in the chair next to the couch. He listened to Kelly's breathing until it became slow and rhythmic.

Nightmares were a given to any firefighter, the sights, the sounds, the _smells_ they were exposed to on the job, on any given call, day after day, year after year, it was impossible not to be plagued with frequent nightmares about it all, about the people they couldn't save, about not being able to save themselves. That was to be expected, especially after all the years they'd done it. But what Casey witnessed tonight with Kelly was unlike anything he'd ever seen before. Severide had done his best to explain his nightmare to Casey, and for the whole he thought he understood it, but he still couldn't figure out why it had had such an effect on Kelly. He couldn't recall seeing Severide this scared in a _long_ time, if ever.

* * *

"Did you hear the weather report that the wind was gusting up to 80 miles an hour last night?" Otis asked the next afternoon. "Some of the neighboring cities saw tornadoes touch down last night, we got lucky."

"I didn't have to hear it," Casey answered, "Part of a tree went flying and crashed through Severide's window, we just got it replaced." Casey plugged in a set of orange lights and worked on stretching them out so they could be put up, and he called over to Herrmann and asked, "Where'd all this stuff come from?"

"I told Cindy we were sprucing the place up for Halloween night, she got this stuff, I don't know what she did but she got a great deal on everything," Herrmann answered as he strung a batch of pumpkin lights across the counter, "think she went a little overboard though."

"I can see that," Matt replied as he looked over to the box of lights and decorations they still hadn't found a place for. He looked around and saw Otis pinning cardboard cutouts of jack-o-lanterns and monsters on the walls, and Severide was off by himself at the end of the bar laying out rubber body parts and fake rats and spiders.

Casey had hoped Kelly would be back to his old self once he'd gotten a few more hours' of sleep and the sun was up, but Kelly had been 'off' all day, Casey didn't know what it was, he couldn't put his finger on it and he didn't know how to help him. So for the time being he kept his distance and just stayed observant to what was going on.

"You guys _are_ gonna come by that night, right?" Herrmann asked.

"I...really hadn't thought about it," Casey said.

"Come on, Casey, everybody's gonna show up," Otis told him, then turned to the other lieutenant across the bar, "How about you, Severide?"

"Hmm?" Kelly turned his head towards the conversation, "Uh sure, I guess so."

Casey pulled the cord for the lights taut and stretched them out one bulb at a time, he hadn't even heard Herrmann coming over to him and nearly jumped when he felt the heavy breath against his ear and Christopher asked him, "Something eating Severide? He ain't looking too hot."

Casey turned and looked over at Kelly and shook his head, "He was up pretty late last night, just dragging I think."

Herrmann nodded and said in a half whisper, "Okay good, last thing I need is everybody in this bar coming down with the creeping crud, then I take it home and my whole family gets it."

Matt reached into the box of decorations and pulled out a couple more boxes of lights and asked Herrmann, "Since you've got more of this stuff than you can use, do you mind if I take a couple of these?"

Herrmann shrugged, "Yeah sure, but what do you want them for?"

* * *

Kelly stood in front of the new window in his bedroom that Casey had put in, and looked straight through it and out into the world down below. Everything was status quo, the trees were mostly bald but a few scant red leaves clung to the tops of the branches and swayed in the wind, the lawns were half dead and yellowed and half still green and kicking, piles of leaves had been raked up in neighboring yards, more of them just blew down the street any time the wind picked up. The houses across the street had lights on, the street lamp at the corner had just flickered on, cars lined the whole curb on both sides of the street, a few darkened figures ran around down there, kids out playing, some of them riding their bikes, down at the corner, a couple out walking. There was a whole world of life out there, a world that he was a part of when he left this apartment. All of this was real and yet somewhere in the back of Kelly's mind, it felt like it could all be taken away from him in a heartbeat. And that scared the hell out of him.

"Kelly?"

"Huh?" he turned and saw Casey, who had just finished placing a string of lights across the top of the dresser. In the dark the 100 orange bulbs wouldn't be bright enough to light up the whole room but it would be enough for someone to adequately make out their surroundings.

"I said I know it looks ridiculous, but if I have to come running in here again tonight at least I won't be knocking into all the furniture," Matt told him, then added, "and, if you'd have another nightmare and wake up...at least you won't be in the pitch dark."

Kelly slowly turned away from the window and nodded uncertainly, "Yeah, thanks..."

"You okay?" Casey asked.

"Yeah," Kelly nodded with more conviction, "just tired."

There was a moment of silence between them, broken when Casey finally said, nodding towards the door, "Come on, dinner should be ready."

* * *

"Kelly."

Severide blinked as he kept his focus on the TV screen. His eyes burned and they were only half open, but he was determined to keep them open.

Casey suddenly appeared in front of the TV, he was changed into his pajamas.

"Kelly."

"Hm?"

Casey folded his arms against his chest and looked at him concernedly, "It's 3 o' clock in the morning."

Kelly closed his eyes in a longer blink, and nodded, "I know."

"Kelly, we have to be on shift in five hours."

"I know."

"You're not going to be any good like this," Casey told him.

"Matt, I..." Kelly was slightly wider awake now as he sat up and tried to explain everything to Casey, tried to think of some way it wouldn't sound like he'd lost his mind. "I'm scared, I'm scared of having that dream again...or that I might go to sleep and it actually happens...I know how that sounds, but I just can't shake this feeling."

Casey moved over to the couch and sat down beside Severide. "I get it, Kelly, _anybody_ would be freaked out by a dream like that, but it's not real, and it's not going to be real."

"But what if it happens again and I can't wake up?" Kelly looked at him, his eyes red and painful just to look at, Casey found himself blinking in response to the sight of them. "It was so real...it was _terrifying_...what's worse is it wasn't a dream where you know it's a dream, _those_ at least you know they have to end sooner or later, it felt so real..."

"As much noise as you were making the other night," Casey told him, "I'll know it, _I'll_ wake you up."

Kelly didn't respond though he seemed to at least be considering the idea.

"Come on, Kelly, we have to get up in four hours," Casey pointed out. "If we don't get _some_ sleep, we won't be good for anything tomorrow."

"Not long," Kelly said absently.

"No, but it's better than running on empty," Casey said, "if it's a slow shift we can crash in our quarters later. Right now we need to get to bed while we still can. Would it help if I stayed with you?" Casey asked. "Or, we could just sleep out here again...or you could stay with me in my room...either way you wouldn't have to be alone." When Severide didn't respond to that either, Casey leaned over and said practically in his ear, not loudly, but firmly, "You're not alone, Kelly."

Kelly slowly blinked, he looked a little more alert, as if something had changed in him. He turned and looked at Casey, and finally nodded and replied, "Alright...alright..."

With a soft groan he got up from the couch, stretched his arms over his head, something popped, and he headed for his bedroom, Casey followed him. The dim orange lights cast a strange glow on the room, enough to see by but not enough to see anything in full details, but that didn't matter. Kelly crawled under the covers on his side of the bed and Casey slipped in on the other side and pulled the covers up as he turned on his side.

"You alright?" he asked Kelly, who lay flat on his back and was staring up at the ceiling.

"Yeah...I think so," he answered.

"I'm right here, Kelly," Casey felt a need to assure his friend, "and I'm not going anywhere."

Kelly turned his head to the side and responded, "Thanks, Casey, I appreciate it."

Casey offered a small, exhausted smile and quietly told his friend, "Go to sleep."


	3. Chapter 3

At 51 as far as anybody knew things were status quo, and the bells never stopped going off all day: house fire, car crash, person trapped, structure fire, person in distress, there was hardly time in between calls to sit down, let alone for Casey to keep an eye on how Severide was doing. Everybody finally got a chance to crash in the bunk room at 12:45 that morning, Casey laid on his bunk and stared at the ceiling but he didn't sleep. He'd meant to stop over and check on Severide but didn't want everyone else finding out about it and asking questions. He decided to wait till the others were asleep, and hopefully no calls came in, and then head over to the Squad lieutenant's quarters and just see how things were going. He hoped that being on the run all day to help so many people might've helped shake off the ominous feelings of loneliness and uselessness that were currently plaguing his best friend. It was certainly true that Casey himself had had several moments of self-doubt as to where his life was going as well as questions about the people in his life, and the ones who it seemed just as quickly left his life. He guessed everybody had moments like that, but they never seemed to linger too long, at least not that he could tell. And this whole thing with Kelly just seemed to come out of nowhere, he wasn't even sure how to address the situation. All he could do, as far as he could tell, was just to offer his presence as a constant reminder to Severide that he wasn't alone, and that the events of his dream couldn't come to life.

He felt himself starting to nod off and forced himself to his feet. If he was going to do it, now was the time. He quietly opened his door and listened, everybody sounded asleep, he crossed the few feet separating his quarters from Kelly's and stood outside the door. It was too dark in there to actually see anything, but he held his breath and listened. No sounds came from inside the room, so he presumed Severide was asleep.

That should've been the end of that, and Casey should've turned and gone back to his own bed, but instead he just found himself staring at the door. As far as he could tell, Kelly was asleep, everything was fine, but for some reason Casey couldn't get his feet to move. He stood there, feeling like he was just waiting for something to happen, something he realized might never happen, and he would still be standing there looking like an idiot when everybody woke up. No matter what he told himself, he couldn't convince himself to move, instead he just turned around, and pressed his back against the wall, and slumped down to sit beside the door. He'd stay for a little while, and if nothing happened, then he'd go back to his own quarters. He'd just stay for a little while...

Casey heard something and opened his eyes, and found himself in the dark. His head was drooped down to his chest and his back hurt from craning his neck so far down. He realized he was on the floor by the lieutenants' quarters, and he heard something. Rolling his neck back and looking up, he realized it was coming from Severide's quarters. Casey pushed himself to his feet, opened the door and went in. Kelly was on his bunk, and he was moaning loudly.

Casey went over to the bed and grabbed the sleeping man by his shoulders and shook him to wake him up, "Kelly...Kelly, wake up, you're dreaming."

Kelly moaned louder, then his mouth fell open and a short scream came out right before his eyes opened, and he looked up and saw Casey.

"Matt?"

"It's alright, Kelly, you're just dreaming."

Severide looked at him for a few seconds, not saying anything, his mouth hung open, no sounds coming out of him whatsoever, then suddenly another short yelp and he shot up on the bed and grabbed hold of Casey and held tightly to him.

"Oh my God, Casey, it was horrible-"

Casey felt the air being squeezed out of him between Kelly's body knocked against his and Kelly's fingers digging into his shoulders, but he didn't try to push the Squad lieutenant back.

"Everybody...everybody died," he shakily confessed, "There was an explosion...Herrmann died, Cruz died, Otis died, oh God, his whole body was burnt...Boden...I tried to pull him out of the rubble, and it was like...his gear was gone, his skin came off right in my hand..."

"Easy, easy," Casey tried to get Kelly to calm down as he reached one arm around and slowly rubbed Kelly's back, "you know that didn't happen, Kelly, we all came back tonight...and if you don't believe me, we can go kick the bunks and wake everybody up for a headcount."

His attempt at a joke didn't get the intended response from Kelly, whose breath came out in ragged gasps, and Casey could feel small tremors running through his entire body.

It took a while for Severide to finally calm down, though Casey was grateful, not as long as it had taken the first night at the apartment. When he finally did, all strength seemed to be gone from him and he fell back against the bunk.

"Take it easy, Kelly," Casey told him, "it was just a nightmare, it's over now."

Somehow Matt had the idea he wasn't going to get out of there anytime soon, not for Kelly's peace of mind. Instead he went around to the other side of the bunk, half laid on it beside him, keeping one foot on the floor, knowing he'd be leaving eventually, and reached over and grabbed Kelly's hand in his and with his free hand, calmly brushed it over Severide's forehead, up to the top and down to the back of his head, and repeat. The two lay there in the dark, listening to each other's breathing, and gradually Casey felt his eyes starting to get heavy, and finally felt them close.

He didn't know if five minutes or an hour had passed, but the next thing he knew, they were both shooting up on the bunk at the sound of the bells going off for another call. They hightailed it out of the office and quickly joined the others suiting up for the next call.

* * *

Halloween morning came, and shortly after breakfast, Kelly disappeared to the bathroom to brush his teeth, and Casey realized how quiet the apartment was and went to find out what Severide was up to. He found Kelly sprawled across the top of his bed with one arm draped over his face as if blocking out the light.

"Are you sick?" Casey asked. It wasn't like Kelly to go back to bed right after eating, usually once he was up he was good to go all day.

Kelly's only response was an incoherent groan. Casey went to the bathroom, found the digital thermometer, returned to the bedroom and knocked Kelly's arm aside to access his temple. As he did he noted that Kelly's skin felt slightly cold and clammy.

The thermometer beeped and Casey found that Kelly didn't have a fever, in fact his temperature was a little lower than normal, but not really enough to be concerned about. But now without his arm covering his face, Casey saw that Kelly did look a shade or two paler than usual.

It had been another short night for both of them, though as far as Casey could tell, nightmares hadn't been a large part of it, more accurately, Kelly had stayed up until he was too tired to fight sleep anymore, and they'd both gotten up too early in the day to be fully recovered from it.

"If you don't feel well...there's really nothing we _have_ to do today," Casey told him as he stood over the Squad lieutenant. "We can tell the others that we won't be at Molly's tonight."

Kelly groaned something that sounded faintly like 'no' and added, never opening his eyes to speak, "We can't do that, we already told them we would."

"Plans can change," Casey said. "We could stay in tonight, keep the lights out and not answer the door."

Kelly groaned again, and added, "No we can't do that, they'll egg the door if nobody answers."

Casey's eyebrows went up in minor amusement and astonishment, "They actually _do_ that?"

Kelly's movements were slow, so were the exhausted, borderline pained moans that escaped his lips, as if just staying awake was suddenly like carrying the weight of the world on him.

Casey thought, and tried again. "We don't have to do anything this morning, what if we just lie down and catch a couple more hours' sleep and then see how you're feeling?" They were both exhausted, he knew it, he felt tired but Severide looked like the walking, check that, the dragging dead. Maybe sleeping the rest of the morning wouldn't solve all his problems but it couldn't hurt him any.

Kelly finally made a grunting sound of reluctant approval. Casey went over to the closet, dug two spare blankets off the top shelf, went over to the bed, dropped one on Kelly and made himself at home on the other side of the bed and curled himself up in his own comforter. Kelly unfolded his and draped it over himself and burrowed under the middle of it, he half turned on his side so he was facing Casey and grunted, "Thanks, Matt."

Casey smiled before he opened his eyes to look at Severide, when he did all he said was, "Go to sleep, Kelly."

* * *

Casey woke up feeling warm and contented, even before he opened his eyes he knew that the position of the sun had changed though the room was still bright. He looked over at the clock and saw it was going on noon. He turned over and saw Kelly curled on his side still huddled in the blanket, but he also noticed that the Squad lieutenant was starting to come around himself.

"Hey," he said, "how're you feeling?"

He noticed that Kelly's color had returned sometime while they were asleep, and his reflexes were faster now as he sat up. He yawned and moaned and stretched his arms over his head, something popped somewhere but he ignored it.

"Better," he answered.

"Feel like lunch?" Casey asked.

He thought about it for a minute and nodded, "Yeah."

* * *

While Kelly got lunch ready, Casey ripped open the bags of candy on the counter and poured them into a bowl.

"Aren't you getting ahead of yourself?" Kelly asked, "It's not going to be dark for six hours."

"Schools get out in 3, what's the earliest you've ever seen kids out trick-or-treating?" Casey asked.

Kelly shrugged, "I don't know. I've seen some kids running around in their costumes in late afternoon but where they actually go is anybody's guess."

"Well, if you were serious about that egg thing, it wouldn't hurt to be ready," Casey said.

That got a small laugh from Severide.

"So, we going to Molly's later?" Matt asked.

Kelly sighed, "Yeah I guess we might as well."

* * *

Molly's on Halloween night looked very different from a few days before when they were in to help set up decorations. Orange and purple lights made the place seem darker than usual and orange and black streamers hung from the ceilings and threatened to drop down on the taller people walking through the bar.

"There you guys are," Herrmann said as the two lieutenants took their seats at the bar, "we were wondering if you were gonna show up."

"We're here," Casey said.

"Yeah...hey Severide, why aren't you in costume?" Herrmann asked.

Kelly got his first drink of the night and responded, "I'm in it, I'm a drunk guy."

"That's no costume."

"Well keep 'em coming, it will be."

Herrmann laughed and went to tend to some other customers.

"Hey Casey, Severide," Otis said as he came over towards them, "glad you guys could make it."

"We can't stay long," Casey told him, "we gotta get back before the trick-or-treat rush hour and make sure the kids don't burn down the apartment."

"Understood," Otis replied. "Need anything?"

Kelly held up his bottle to indicate he was fine.

"How about some chips?" Casey asked.

"Coming right up. Oh by the way, Severide, I found something I think you might get a kick out of."

"What's that?" Casey asked as he saw Brian pick up a DVD from behind the counter.

"'The Hollywood Knights', great movie, Halloween night 1965."

Kelly nodded as he glanced over the case, "Classic cars, classic music, and Michell Pfeiffer in short white shorts, what's not to like?"

"You've seen it?"

Kelly nodded. "Yeah, when I was a kid I used to sneak out of bed to watch it on cable after my mom went to sleep. Where'd you get it?"

"A blind date introduced me to it actually," Otis answered, "Our plans got rained out so we went back to her place and she put it on."

"And it made you think of Severide?" Casey asked.

"Watch the movie, you'll _see_ it," Otis told him.

Kelly opened the case and looked at the disc, then closed it again and nodded, the surprise evident in his eyes, "That's great, thanks, Otis."

"Well," Casey said as he inched over to get a better look, "Looks like we've got plans for tonight after all. Is it good?"

Kelly nodded, "Oh yeah."

* * *

Casey had been laughing so hard, he had one hand clamped over his mouth and he absently slapped his thigh with the other as the movie drew to a close.

"Oh yeah, that's a good one," he said. "Otis was right, that is so _you_."

"Shut up," Kelly teasingly jabbed him.

Casey got up and headed to the front door and looked out. He called back to the living room, "There hasn't been anybody now for two hours, I'm locking the door." He set the bolt and chain, then picked up the bowl of candy and added as he carried it over to the couch, "And taking the rest of the Kit-Kats for myself."

He set the bowl on the couch between them, as he picked out the bite-sized Kit-Kats, Severide reached over and dug out a packet of M&Ms and ripped it open.

"So, are you doing alright now?" Casey asked.

Kelly turned to look at him, and didn't answer immediately, but when he did he told Matt, "Know what? I think so. I don't know what it is...but yeah, I think so."

"Good to know," Casey offered a small smile.

* * *

Casey turned off the TV and looked over at Kelly who had fallen asleep and had his head tilted back against the couch. It was good to see him relaxed after everything that had gone on, but Casey couldn't help smirking at how cute Severide looked asleep, and he couldn't resist reaching over and running his hand over Kelly's short hair and mussing it up on top. That got the Squad lieutenant's attention and he slowly woke up.

"Huh? What? What's going on?"

"It's 12:30, Kelly," Casey told him, "come on, let's go to bed."

Kelly moaned softly and rubbed his eyes, then, almost reluctantly, got up and followed Casey to the bedroom.

Casey could've gone back to his own room, but he was tired and cold and instead he just crawled in on the vacant side of Severide's bed and pulled the covers up. The dim orange lights by now gave the room a sort of comforting glow, it made the long fall nights suddenly not seem quite as bleak.

Kelly curled up under the covers and already had his eyes closed as he grunted, "Goodnight, Casey."

Matt watched him for a minute, and Kelly was already out like a light. Not able to help himself, he leaned over and planted a small kiss on Kelly's temple and half whispered, "Happy Halloween, Kelly."

He also burrowed under the covers and made himself comfortable and settled down to sleep. He had a feeling that tonight, they would both actually get a good night's sleep for the first time all week.


End file.
